


Sugi - Twine

by RoeDusk



Series: Tapestry - Prologue [9]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Other, Sugi's Father is an old friend of Jiraiya's
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 21:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11216211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoeDusk/pseuds/RoeDusk
Summary: Sugi wanted to be like her mother when she was young.  Now she wants to honor her memory.So she's helping run the Barbecue restaurant.





	Sugi - Twine

As a girl Sugi wanted to be a ninja like her mother, saving the village one step at a time with her wit and clever poisons. Her father was awesome too, the best cook - he even owned his own restaurant, but Sugi just wanted him to live forever and keep cooking his delicious food. She never wanted to help run the restaurant, whining when they asked her to help with the dishes, and complaining about having to learn economics on top of all her Ninja classes.

But the restaurant had been her parents’ dream. They met when it first opened, her critiquing his safety precautions, him asking her tips on how to diminish the chance to poison anything. They bonded over making it better, and each worked extra hours to get it up and running until it was one of the most famous barbecue restaurants in the Village.

She remembers her mother agonizing over pages of notes and scrolls and books as she taught herself medical jutsu, determined to come up with some jutsu to purify food and drive out poisons. Remembers renovations and negotiations for better produce, her mother noting throwing angles and sightlines while her father worked on tweaking every recipe until it was perfect.

She remembers her father talking seals with Jiraiya of the Sannin over drinks and somehow it turning into plans to renovate the neighboring building into an inn. She _also_ remembers Mom coming home, Jiraiya flirting, and her father threatening him with a lifelong ban from both the restaurant and the inn if he ever spoke to her mother that way again. Remembers giggling to herself when it was Jiraiya that caved.

So when a mission gone bad meant her mother never came home again she took a leave of absence to help out. Her dad needed her close, to know she wasn’t about to disappear on him too, and she needed to help keep her mother’s dream going. So she played hostess, considered throwing and sightlines, learned medical jutsu, and finally finished the technique her mother had wanted to invent. It didn’t take long until ninja who didn’t even know her team by name knew her face, slowly increasing the restaurant’s popularity until even the Hokage came to try the food.

As she showed off her purifying jutsu patrons started tipping better, and her ninja customers started repaying her in information as well. Hints, rumors, sometimes insights hidden in parables, or even outright warnings. All in absolute privacy, never to be known beyond the two of them. She hadn’t set out to become an information gatherer, but it suited her.

That’s how she knew about the growing unrest between the Uchiha and the Council, long before events suffered their terrible end. Rumors of Uchiha cruelty became more commonplace than discussion of their fantastic skill, even their bloodline limit. She wondered what had happen to make so many ninja so upset when those same customers refused to put much stock in civilian rumors before. But she let it be, convinced someone would set everything straight again and things would settle down. It wasn’t her place, and it wasn’t anything to worry about.

Until Mikoto-sensei and the entire Clan was murdered, and suddenly she was very worried. Asuma stormed out of the village in the aftermath, Aoba retreated into rituals - out of the public eye even more. And Sugi knew both of them too well to believe they were scared away. She could see the Council sliding into the cracks the Uchiha left behind, restructuring what was left into entirely new shapes. She wasn’t sure what they were doing, what anyone was doing now, but she wasn’t about to let it go unnoticed this time.

She let the ideas marinate for a little while, helped her father design a prepackaged mission ration or takeout menu using some of Jiraiya’s old seal designs. Just the thing to push their popularity up another notch, and bring in more rumors.

And when Ibiki tracks her down, asking for her help in his investigation, she considers him thoughtfully, before sharing what she knows for the first time. She wonders if Jiraiya knows she’s an information broker now, or if he has no need for a source at home. Either way, his lack of interference makes Ibiki her main contact. Takeout boxes prove to be the perfect cover for passing information unnoticed, and making sure investigation partners remember to eat.

The Council won’t know what hit them.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is Asuma's favorite restaurant. And the Inn that the Sand Sibs stay at for the Exams.


End file.
